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For once the devil of Teufelswiese was speechless with happiness. “It’s sensational,” said Andreas Sander, “I don’t even know what to say.”
He didn’t have to, one look in the eyes made any other word superfluous: in the race of his life, the 31-year-old Westphalian surprisingly won silver in the downhill at the Alpine Ski World Championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo . and almost succeeded. An unimaginable success: Sander only lost the gold by one hundredth. (Alpine skiing: all races on the LIVETICKER)
“No,” said Sander overjoyed, this slight difference from Super-G world champion Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria “doesn’t bother me.” He “never expected me to pick up a medal”, and that now he has one, it’s a “great feeling.”
Sander won gold at the World Junior Championships
That was understandable: Sander had won Super G gold at the World Junior Championships 13 years ago, but never made it to the podium at the World Cup. Three fifths since 2016 were his best results, most recently in January in Kitzbühel.
It was only when he was on the podium for the first time that Sander realized “it was sensational” what he had managed to do and “that he would then make it to a World Cup, he could never have dreamed of that. It was a perfect day.”
And he’d already guessed it when he crossed the finish line with exit number two just behind Kriechmayr. “I quickly realized it was a good race,” he reported, and that sentiment didn’t change as more riders came down the hill after him.
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Third silver for the DSV
Even the increasingly enthusiastic Alpine boss Wolfgang Maier immediately spoke of a “sensational result” after the third and again unexpected silver medal after Romed Baumann (Super-G) and Kira Weidle (Downhill). And the hundredths, “we surpassed them”, he said, “for us it is like a gold medal”.
For the first World Cup victory in the supreme discipline since Hansjörg Tauscher’s in Vail in 1989, Sander was just 27 centimeters from the end of the Vertigine slope, which is only 2,610 meters long.
Sander, who learned to ski on the “Teufelswiese” near Ennepetal, quickly became friends with this vertigin (“vertigo”) after reaching Cortina: “I noticed it from day one: the descent suits me well.” (Alpine Skiing World Cup)
Sander distances favorites Feuz and Paris
In training races, Sander, who was thinking very analytically, came sixth, groped his way onto the course, and then was fastest when the time came. And therefore also faster than the co-favorites Beat Feuz (Switzerland / 3rd) and Dominik Paris (Italy / 4th).
So it didn’t matter that the other Germans had no chance in the battle for the medals. For Baumann, who suffered bleeding cuts to his nose and lip when he landed at the finish line, it was enough for 14th place (Alpine skiing: race schedule for the 2020/21 season)
Thomas Dreßen finished 18th in his first race after 344 days, a hip operation in late November and just ten days in snow. “I’m still satisfied,” he emphasized. Dominik Schwaiger finished in 22nd place.
While Kriechmayr now won both World Cup sprint titles in third place after Hermann Maier (Austria / 1999) and Bode Miller (US / 2005), Sander also ended a two-decade lean period. – The last German medal in the supreme alpine discipline was in 2001 Florian Eckert won no less sensationally at St. Anton.
